Leclerc "surprised" by Australia pole after "messy" build-up

Charles Leclerc has expressed his surprise at taking pole position for the Australian Grand Prix after conceding to have "always struggled" at Albert Park.

Leclerc secured his second pole of the F1 season with a stunning one minute 17.868s lap to topple championship rival Max Verstappen by over a quarter of a second.

For the Ferrari driver, the result was made all the more special given his previously difficult relationship with the Melbourne circuit.

"It felt good, even more, because it is a track where I have always struggled before in the past as a driver," explained Leclerc.

"I don't know, it probably doesn't fit me as well and this weekend we really worked hard.

"It was a bit messy, the free practice three session, for me and I managed to do some good laps but not everything together and in Q3 I managed to put everything together so it feels great and I'm very happy to be starting on pole tomorrow."

Leclerc cautious of Red Bull race pace

Ferrari and Red Bull have been evenly matched in the opening two races of the season with Leclerc victorious in Bahrain and Verstappen in Saudi Arabia.

Across the Australian weekend so far, there has been again little to separate the two teams.

"The car is nice to drive but Red Bull were very quick in FP2 doing the long runs," added Leclerc.

"But to be honest, we were quite surprised by our pace in qualifying, so everything is possible.

"We just need to do a good start and then hopefully we can keep that first position."

Related

More F1 news

Latest F1 news

F1 News Today: Hamilton admission, Newey's wife takes down critic, FIA steward quit in penalty row

• 16 minutes ago

Honda boss wants to 'make history with Fernando Alonso', he just doesn't know when

• 59 minutes ago

Max Verstappen told to block Lambiase McLaren transfer: 'Money changes everything'

• 2 hours ago

Mercedes and McLaren just gave Red Bull wings with $500million Verstappen transfer mistake

• 2 hours ago

Former F1 star quit FIA steward role after TV backlash over Lewis Hamilton penalty

• 3 hours ago

McLaren boss says Monaco Grand Prix result appeal is about the 'integrity' of F1

• Yesterday 22:00